Most child resistant packaging closures currently on the market, especially those used for medical and health care tablet and capsule containers and bottles, as well as those used for cosmetic products, household cleaning products, gardening and other household substances, are too difficult to open and close for elderly people, particularly those people who suffer from weak and arthritic hands. Consequently, there is a tendency by elderly people not to close these child resistant packages properly or to leave the caps off completely or even to transfer the contents, such as tablets, into containers or bottles that are not child resistant. The American publication `Packaging Strategies` reported that "a 1983 study by the American Association of Poison Control Centers for the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission found that 82% of child poisoning exposures involving prescription drugs takes place in the child's home and involves medications that do not belong to anyone living in the home (often a visiting grandparent). The study found that seniors often do not or cannot use child resistant packs for their medications. This is at the heart of Consumer Product Safety Commission's new senior friendly child resistant packaging test requirements."
In order to make packaging both resistant to young children and easy to access by elderly people, it is necessary to substitute force and dexterity for opening of closures with cognitive skills that are within the ability of elderly people and yet beyond the capability of young children.
The dispensing container for tablets which is the subject of the International Application No. PCT/AU91/00233 (International Publication No. 91/18808), the U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,559 and the European Patent No. 0531394, all with priority of expired Australian Provisional Patent Application No. PK 0484 of Jun. 4 1990 (same applicant and inventor as for the present patent application), has an inherent feature that makes it easy to use for elderly people, namely that the closure does not have to be removed and replaced in order to dispense one or more tablets or capsules. Turning the closure in relation to the container to align the dispensing apertures in the closure and the container is much easier than removing and replacing any of the conventional child resistant closures such as, for instance, the widely used closure that has to be simultaneously pressed down and unscrewed. Replacing either child resistant or even non child resistant, conventional screw caps is particularly difficult for elderly people and people with arthritic hands because the threads in the cap and on the container have to be co-axially aligned for the threads to engage.
It is generally difficult to achieve a design that is convenient for use by elderly people and at the same time resistant to access by children.